An op-ed in the Washington Post is calling for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to bow out of the 2024 race for ‘the sake of the country.’
Columnist George F. Will pointed to a slew of Biden’s gaffes and verbal blunders as reason enough for why ‘Joe Biden should not seek another term.’
‘Democrats should promptly face that fact, and this one: An Everest of evidence shows that Vice President Harris is starkly unqualified to be considered as his successor.’
The scathing op-ed piece comes just a day after Biden fumbled his words during a campaign stop in Florida where he confused the American war in Iraq and the Russian war in Ukraine – then flubbed again by saying son Beau died in the Iraq war when, in fact, he died in 2015 of brain cancer.
President Joe Biden again said that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq, while catching himself calling the war in Ukraine the Iraq war, while delivering remarks in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday
The op-ed piece first addressed one of Biden’s gaffes that Will believed slipped by unnoticed.
Will wrote that Biden did not sign the $426 billion student loan forgiveness into law like the president had recently claimed.
In August, Biden announced that he had decided to cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for people making less than $125,000 annually, or as much as $20,000 for individuals in the same income bracket who were also Pell Grant recipients.
However, a federal appeals court has temporarily blocked Biden’s plan, creating uncertainty for millions of borrowers. But for now, the website is live and accepting applications.
But in the op-ed piece on Wednesday, Will pushed home his point that the loan forgiveness was not something accomplished by ‘a law’ Biden had signed.
‘Biden was not merely again embellishing his achievements. This is not just another of his verbal fender benders,’ he wrote. ‘There is no less-than-dismaying explanation for his complete confusion. What vote? Who voted?’
He continued: ‘After repeated unilateral extensions of the moratorium on loan repayments until election season, Biden unilaterally implemented the windfall for millions of voters. Congress was not involved in this cataract of money from the Treasury, in violation of the Constitution’s appropriations clause.’
‘It is frightening that Biden does not know, or remember, what he recently did regarding an immensely important policy,’ he wrote. ‘He must be presumed susceptible to future episodes of similar bewilderment. He should leave the public stage on Jan. 20, 2025.’
On Tuesday night, Biden again said that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq, while catching himself calling the war in Ukraine the Iraq war, while delivering remarks in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
‘Inflation is a worldwide problem right now,’ the president said. ‘There’s a war in Iraq and the impact on oil and what Russia’s doing. Excuse me, the war in Ukraine.’
‘I’m thinking Iraq, because that’s where my son died – because he died,’ Biden then explained.
Beau Biden, who served as Delaware’s attorney general and in the Delaware Army National Guard in the Iraq War, died at age 46 in 2015 from brain cancer at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Beau Biden (left) died of brain cancer in 2015 after serving in Iraq. He’s photographed with then Vice President Joe Biden (right) in 2009 at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad
The president has long linked his service, and the military’s use of burn pits, to Beau’s brain cancer diagnosis.
‘In my view, I can’t prove it yet, he came back with stage 4 glioblastoma. Eighteen months he lived, knowing he was going to die,’ Biden said in 2019.
Biden previously said that Beau died in Iraq while speaking at Camp Hale in Colorado last month.
‘Just imagine – I mean it sincerely – I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice – genuine sacrifice they all made,’ Biden said then.
Biden was in Florida to take on the Republicans with just one week to go before the midterm elections.
The Washington Post columnist also called for Biden’s vice president to bow out of the 2024 race, as he recounted several instances in which, according to him, sounded like ‘someone giving a book report on a book she has not read.’
‘Her style betrays a self-satisfied exaggeration of her aptitudes. Lacking natural talent, she needs to prepare, but evidently doesn’t. Complacency and arrogance make a ruinous compound,’ he wrote.
Last month, critics tore into Harris for her comments reflecting on the nostalgia of riding a ‘yellow school bus’ at an event unveiling a program aimed at reducing emissions by replacing diesel buses with electrical vehicles.
Critics tore into Vice President Kamala Harris for gushing over her love and nostalgia for ‘yellow school buses’. Pictured: Harris laughs with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan during a tour of electric school buses at Meridian High School in Falls Church, Virginia on May 20, 2022
Speaking at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington last week, the vice president asked ‘who doesn’t love a yellow school bus?’ in front of a backdrop of four electric school buses.
Critics said she sounded more like a teacher speaking with young children than a vice president delivering remarks on a presidential initiative.
Radio host Clay Travis said the spectacle proved the administration cannot ‘let her talk in public.’
‘Democrats have been hiding Kamala, but she just had a press conference and talked about yellow school buses and my goodness they really can’t let her talk in public about anything,’ he tweeted.
‘What in the Yellow School Bus is wrong with Kamala Harris,’ comedian Terrence K. Williams tweeted. ‘LORD JESUS HELP US ALL. She is an embarrassment! Raise your hand if you agree.’
Florida Republican politician Lavern Spicer, who failed in her primary bid for the House earlier this year, tweeted: ‘Guess what Kamala? I don’t love a yellow school bus. I DO love the diesel fuel they run on THAT YOUR PARTY IS CAUSING US TO RUN OUT OF though.’
Gas prices have been extremely high – rising to record levels since Biden took office and Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February.
Republicans have ripped apart the Biden administration and Democrats for hiding environmental issues in funding and spending bills, especially ones that they claim prioritize green initiatives at the expense of taxpayers.
Nearly $1 billion, in part funded through the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill, will go towards school districts replacing diesel-powered buses with electric ones.
He’ll appear in Donald Trump’s home state to blast ‘MAGA Republicans,’ who he claims want to cut social programs and increase taxes for the wealthy
Biden, who is battling low approval ratings, is spending his last week on the campaign trail trying to contrast how his Democrats will govern versus Republicans as voters prepare to head to the polls on Nov. 8.
He will make his closing argument at stops in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Maryland over the next seven days.
He’s not the only Democrat hitting the campaign trail. Jill Biden heads to Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Barack Obama, meanwhile, will be in Nevada on Tuesday for Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who faces a tough re-election campaign and he heads to Arizona on Wednesday to campaign for Senator Mark Kelly.
Trump, meanwhile, will hold a rally in Miami on Sunday although he’ll be campaigning for Republicans in general. DeSantis, who is rumored to a 2024 presidential contender, is not scheduled to appear with him.
Donald Trump will hold a rally for Republicans on Sunday in Miami
Florida has become an increasingly difficult state for Democrats to win. Trump carried it in 2016 and 2020.
DeSantis capitalized on anti-covid sentiments to push back against shut down restrictions and signed legislation against vaccine mandates.
Biden is looking to drive up voter turn out but is staying away from most of the battleground states.
The president hasn’t been to Arizona, Nevada or Georgia – three states that helped put in the White House – nor is he expected to. All three states have closely-contested Senate races.
The president will join Barack Obama in Philadelphia on Saturday to campaign for gubernatorial candidate Josh Shaprio and Senate contender John Fetterman.
With the Senate currently sitting at 50-50 – and Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tie breaking vote – any race could decide which party is in the majority next year.
